POV (Point of View) Launches New Season on PBS with "The Return"

Documentary looks at how the amendment of California’s controversial “Three Strikes” law has affected prisoners, families, lawmakers and American society.

POV (Point of View), American television’s longest-running independent documentary series, will open its 29th season on Monday, May 23 on PBS with the national broadcast premiere of Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway’s “The Return.” POV, winner of a 2013 MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions, airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on PBS from May to November, with primetime specials during the year. (Check local listings.)

In 2012, California amended its “Three Strikes” law—one of the harshest criminal sentencing policies in the country. The passage of Proposition 36 marked the first time in U.S. history that citizens voted to shorten sentences of those currently incarcerated. Within days, the reintegration of thousands of “lifers” was underway. The Return examines this unprecedented reform through the eyes of those on the front lines—prisoners suddenly freed, families turned upside down, reentry providers helping navigate complex transitions and attorneys and judges wrestling with an untested law. At a moment of reckoning on mass incarceration, what can California’s experiment teach the nation?

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